Bursa Malaysia Closes Marginally Lower

By Zufazlin Baharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia closed marginally lower today, ahead of the long weekend beginning with the Maulidur Rasul public holiday tomorrow.

At 5 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 0.37 of-a-point to 1,578.15 from yesterday’s close of 1,578.52.

The index opened 1.40 points higher at 1,579.92 and moved between 1,575.99 and 1,581.89 throughout the day.

In the broader market, decliners beat gainers 552 to 385, while 527 counters were unchanged, with 1,094 untraded and seven suspended.

Turnover declined to 2.32 billion units worth RM2.30 billion from 2.70 billion units worth RM2.80 billion on Wednesday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng attributed the muted trading today to lack of buying interest especially in a shortened trading week.

“With only three trading days, we see low volume, which means less trade for this week,” he told Bernama.

Besides, Thong said Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision to maintain the Overnight Policy Rate at 2.75 per cent has no impact on the local stock market.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank and Public Bank added one sen to RM9.99 and RM4.27 respectively, CIMB Group gained seven sen to RM7.30, IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.91 and Tenaga Nasional shed four sen to RM13.06.

As for the active counters, Sime Darby eased three sen to RM2.03, Zetrix AI slipped half-a-sen to 86.5 sen, Velesto Energy ticked down one sen to 20.5 sen and Tanco Holdings slipped half-a-sen to 79.5 sen, while DneX was unchanged at 24.5 sen.

-- BERNAMA